Resilient hard surfaced floor



g- 11, 1931- 0. s. BOWMAN 7 1,818,298

RESILIENT HARD SURFACED FLOOR Filed Dec.- 13, 192.9

are? A 3010mm.

Patented Aug. 11, 3.931

SATES OLIVER- S. BOWMAN, OF COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO RESILIENT HARD SURFACED FLOOR Application filed December 13, 1929.

This invention relates to improvements in floor construction of the general type shown and claimed in U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,539,988, granted to me on June 2, 1925.

: It has been found from experience that unyielding floors such as are commonly employed in buildings of a fireproof construction are very tiring to the people who use them and are objectionable for other reasons j which I will not enumerate.

It is object of this invention to produce a flexible resilient hard surface floor that can be supported either on wooden j oist on flexible steel joist, or on a rigid con- 1 crete base, and which will be so constructed and designed that it will yield when weight is applied thereto in a manner corresponding to the ordinary wooden floors that are supported on wooden joists and which are commonly employed in homes and smaller nonfireproof buildings.

Another object of this invention is to produce a suitable anchoring means for holding hard surface floor blocks to the support in such a manner that they can move relative to each other when sufficient weight is applied to cause the floor to yield whereby the floor can flex without injuring the-sun face thereof.

Another object of this invention is to produce a floor construction having a polished surface that is harder than marble and which can be moulded in place on the sup port, whereby the cost of labor for installing the floor will be reduced to a minimum.

The above and other objects which may become apparent as the description proceeds are attained by means of a construction and an arrangement of parts that will now be described in detail and for this purpose reference will be had to the accompanying drawings, in which the preferred construction has been illustrated and in which:

Fig. 1 is a section through a portion of a floor constructed in accordance with my in vention, taken on a line 1l, Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view showing a portion of the finished floor surface;

Fig. 3 is a detail showing a portion of the resilient floor supporting means;

Serial No. 413,774.

Fig. 4: is a section through one of the in- Fig. 6 is a section similar to that shown in Fig. 4, but showing a slightly modified anchoring means;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a portion of the anchoring means shown in Fig. 6; and

F ig. 8 is a top plan View of a slightly modified anchoring means that can be substituted for the one shown in Fig. 7.

In the drawings reference numeral 1 represents a concrete supporting surface such as the ordinary floor construction of fireproof buildings. Although the invention will be described in connection with a rigid support like that indicated by reference numeral l, I want it understood that the supporting surface may consist of either wooden or steel joists which may be either resilient or rigid as the case may be. My improved floor construction which is supported on the top of the rigid supporting member 1 consists of a plurality of short resilient wooden springs that have been designated by reference numeral 2. The under surface of these springs is convex in the manner shown in Fig. 1. The center part of the convex lower surface consists of a short section 3 that is parallel to the upper surface of the spring and the under surface is then tapered so as to form upwardly inclined surfaces 4. Supported on the ends of the springs are supporting strips 5 that extend entirely across the room. These supporting strips have their opposite edges provided with rabbets 6 in which the ends of the springs are located. Supported on the upper surface of the strips 5 is a layer of sheathing 7 which may be tongued and grooved'or which may be ordinary sheathing. This sheathing is secured to the strips 5 by nails or by any other suitable means and the sheathing and the strips are preferably assembled in sections and then laid upon the supporting surface. Located on the upper surface of the sheathing is a waterproof layer 8 of tar or other waterproof paper and supported on the upper .surface of this waterproofing is the hard surface floor which consists of a plurality of blocks 9 that are moulded in place and which are constructed in accordance with an improved method, which will be hereinafter described.

Before the floor is put in place on the waterproof material 8, the anchoring means is first put in place thereon and this anchor ing means will now be described.

Before the floor 9 is putin place, the surface of the waterproof material is laid out into squares or hexagons of the desired size. In the drawings squares have been indicated. At the corners of the squares holes are drilled for the reception of the screw portion 10 of the anchoring means 11;. This aiiichoring means consists of acylindrical metal men'iher which may be made of brass or of any other suitable material and which is provided with two rectangularlay related diametrical. slots 12, as shownin Fig. Short strips of sheet metal and which have been indicated by reference numeral 13 are put into place between the different anchoring means in the usual manner shown in Figs. 2, 4; and The strips 18 are preferably of a width equal to the thickness of the floor that is to be moulded in place and have 7 their ends provided with projections 145 that are adaptedto be inserted into the slots 12 in the manner shown in Figs. e and The separators or strips 13 are preferably provided with a longitudinally extending head or corrugation 15 that is designed to give them: rigidity and to hold them stra-ig-l-i-t while the concrete mixture is being put into place. The corrugations 15 may, of course, be omitted and some equivalent strengthen-- ing in tans substituted therefor.

Instead of the anchoring means shown in Fig. it and indicated by reference numeral 11, a slightly different form can be substituted and this has been illustrated in Figs. 6

and 7. In this modified form a cylindrical member 16 is employed and this is provided with diametrically located slots 17 that are adapted to receive the end portions l l. The base of member 16 is provided with an opening 18 for the reception of a. nail 19. This nail provided with a large head 20 and when in place as shown in Fig. (3 serves to holdthe member 16 in place and the head holds the the separating strips 13 in place also. Since the head 20 is quite large, it overlaps the corners of the blocks and serves as an anchoring means for the latter. Instead of making the member 16-, as shown in Fi 7, it can be made-in the manner in flicated in Fig. 8 where the modified anchoring member hasbeen designated. by referencenumeral 21. In this modified form a plurality of pairs of lugs 22 extend outwardly at right angles to each other and the space between these lugs is adapted to receive the ends ll of the separating strips 13. A nail 19 extends through the opening 23 and holds the anchoring member 21 in place in the manner shown in Fig. 6. The tops of member 11 as well as the head 20 of the nail can be of any desired shape and may be round, square or hexagonal as may be desired.

After the anchoring means and the sep' arating strips have been put in place in the manner shown and described, the forms thus produced are partly filled with the mixture of cement and sand. This mixture does not quite fillthe moulds but a space of at least a quarter of an inch is leftbetween the upper surface of the sand and cement mix.- ture and the top of the strips 13 and this space is then filled with. a surfacing mixture consisting of gravel and cement. The gravel for the surfacing mixture is usually obtained by screening the sand, because the ordinary sand contains a considerable pro portion of small gravel particles that can be readily separated by screening. This gravel is differentially screened so that particles between certain sizes only are retained. After the gravel has been screened and separated. quite completely from the sand, it is mixed with cement as above intimated and put into place in the forms. After the cement has had time to set, it is ground and polished by suitable mach-inery and will develop a polished surface that is harder than marble and nruch cheaper because the gravel particles of which the surface is partly composed can be obtained from the sand as above explained, and since these particles are very hard, a polished and highly wear resisting surface is produced. If the floor were made entirely of a mixtureof sand and. cement, a smooth surface could not be obtained because the sand is very soft and a concrete block made from sand and cement cannot be polished, whereas, the gravel particles are composed mostly of granite and will take a high polish and due to their great hardness they will wear better than marble and are therefore preferable to the floor construction designated as terrezzo.

After the fioor has been laid and finished and when in use, it will yield when weight is applied to it. If the weight is applied at apoint the floor will natiilrall'y yield at that point and not at the other places and this is permitted by the hinged connection that is produced by means of the separating strips above described. If an excessively heavy load is applied, the floor will yield to the extent that the lower surfaces of the connecting strips 5 will come in contact with the supporting surface and the parts. are so designed that when this occurs, the under surface of the sheathing will come in contact with the upper surface of the springs and the floor will then cease to yield. Instead of wooden springs like those illustrated, it is possible to substitute metal springs if they should be found desirable.

The separating strips constitute a part of the anchoring means and together with the post l1 serve to hold the hard surfaced floor to the base.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced a novel floor construction that combines the features of a hard surface concrete floor with the yielding characteristic of the wooden floors and that I have also produced a method for forming the floor surface whereby it is possible to obtain by means of ordinary sand and cement a floor construction that is susceptible to be polished and which is exceedingly hard and wear resisting.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

1. A yielding, hard surfaced floor comprising a rigid support having a supporting surface of extended area, a plurality of springs on the supporting surface, a flexible base supported on the springs and movable towards and away from the supporting surface, anchoring means and separators secured to the upper surface of the base, and a cementitious floor moulded in place so as to embed therein the anchoring means and the separators whereby the separate sections thus formed can be moved relative to the others when the base is bent due to the application of a weight thereto.

2. A yielding, hard surfaced floor comprising a rigid support having a supporting surface of extended area, a plurality of springs on the supporting surface, a flexible base supported on the springs and movable towards and away from the supporting surface, anchoring means and separators secured to the upper surface of the base, said anchoring means comprising a metal plug having means for securing it to the base, the plug having a plurality of grooves adapted to receive the ends of separator strips, and a cementitious floor moulded in place about the anchoring means and the separator strips whereby a sectional hard surfaced floor is produced that will yield when subjected to downward pressure.

3. A floor of the class described and adapted to be supported on a rigid surface, said floor comprising a supporting base formed from wood, the under surface of said base having spaced parallel strips secured thereto, a plurality of springs having their ends in contact with the strips and having their intermediate portions in contact with the supporting surface, whereby the base can yield when weight is applied thereto, waterproof material applied to the upper surface of the base, a plurality of anchoring devices secured to the base and extending upwardly therefrom, said anchoring means comprising a metal plug provided with slots, separating strips having their ends located in the slots and a mouldable floor material moulded about the anchors and separator strips and hardened in place.

4. A floor of the class described, comprising, in combination, a flexible wooden base, water-proof material secured to the upper surface thereof, springs connected with the under surface thereof, anchoring devices secured to the base and projecting upwardly therefrom, said devices having slots in their sides, separator strips having their ends located in the slots in the anchoring devices and concrete floor material moulded in place about the separating strips.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

OLIVER S. BOWMAN. 

